2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [NoV. 8, 



of native iron, took the opportunity of stating that they had been 

 first discovered last year by the Swedish arctic expedition, which 

 brought back several blocks of considerable size, which had been 

 found on the coast of Greenland. The expedition of this year, how- 

 ever, has just succeeded in bringing back more than twenty addi- 

 tional specimens, amongst which two were of enormous size. The 

 largest, weighing more than 49,000 Swedish pounds, or about 21 

 tons English, with a maximum sectional area of about 42 square 

 feet, is now placed in the hall of the Eoyal Academy of Stockholm ; 

 whilst, as a comiDliment to Denmark, on whose territory they were 

 found, the second largest, weighing 20,000 lbs., or about 9 tons, 

 has been presented to the Museum of Copenhagen. 



Several of these specimens have been submitted to chemical ana- 

 lysis, which proved them to contain nearly 5 per cent, of nickel, with 

 from 1 to 2 per cent, of carbon, and to be quite identical, in chemical 

 composition, with many aerohtes of known meteoric origin. When 

 polished and etched by acids, the surface of these masses of metallic 

 iron shows the peculiar figures or markings usually considered 

 characteristic of native iron of meteoric origin. 



The masses themselves were discovered lying loose on the shore, 

 but immediately resting upon basaltic rocks (probably of Miocene 

 age), in which they appeared to have originally been imbedded ; and 

 not only have fragments of similar iron been met' with in the basalt, 

 but the basalt itself, upon being examined, is found to contain 

 minute particles of metallic iron, identical in chemical composition 

 with that of the large masses themselves, whilst some of the masses 

 of native iron are observed to enclose fragments of the basalt. 



As the chemical composition and mineralogical character of these 

 masses of native iron are quite diff'erent from those of any iron of 

 terrestrial origin, and altogether identical with those of undoubted 

 meteoric iron. Professor Kordenskjold regards them as aerolites, 

 and accounts for their occurrence in the basalt by supposing that 

 they proceeded from a shower of meteorites which had fallen down 

 and buried themselves in the molten basalt during an eruption in 

 the Miocene period. 



Notwithstanding that these masses of metallic iron were found 

 lying on the shore between the ebb and flow of tide, it has been 

 found, upon their removal to Stockholm, that they perish with ex- 

 traordinary rapidity, breaking up rapidly and falhng to a fine powder. 

 Attempts to preserve them by covering them with a coating of 

 varnish have as yet proved unsuccessful ; and it is actually proposed 

 to preserve them from destruction by keeping them in a tank of 

 alcohol. 



Mr. Maskelyne stated that the British Museum already possessed 

 a specimen of this native iron, and accounted for its rapid destruc- 

 tion on exposure by the absorption of chlorine from terrestrial 

 sources, which brought about the formation of ferrous chloride. 

 This was particularly marked in the case of the great Melbourne 

 meteorite in the British Museum. He had succeeded in protecting 

 this, as well as the Greenland sj)ecimen, by coating them externally, 



